Ed Miliband is at war with Number 10 over its attempts to slash DESNZ’s budget by at least 1% to help fund the elusive Defence Investment Plan (DIP). According to the Telegraph, Miliband has gone studs up over demands to squeeze around £600m from the department. Will someone think of the heat pumps…
Currently, around £9 billion is set to be spent on carbon capture and storage alone. Miliband thinks this is a worthy investment, even as the DIP is around £4.5 billion short of the funding requested by the MoD. Is Ed aware that Britain’s Navy more or less doesn’t exist?
The ongoing cabinet wrangling over the DIP is increasingly regarded as an academic exercise within Labour circles anyway, given Starmer’s tenure in Number 10 is coming to an end. Although under the new regime, Miliband will still sit at the top table…
The British taxpayer spent almost £30,000 sending Labour’s Climate Minister to South America, where she enjoyed a full-day hike. Enjoy the jollies while you can…
Katie White went to Chile and Argentina at the end of March. Guido’s FOI Unit has obtained the full itinerary and costs from the government…
The minister, her private secretary, a policy official, and a press officer were all flown out for the trip with flight costs totalling £27,582.38. It was business class for everyone on the long-haul flights – including the press officer, who cost more on flights (£7,217) than the minister herself (~£6,131). Alongside medical and food costs the bill runs to a grand total of £27,582.38…
The glacier day hike was the only activity on Monday 23 March. The entire day’s itinerary is: travel to glacier, meet one person, do media, hike, film, come home. The deliverable for the glacier visit is literally listed as “climate-impact visuals, comms assets and a stakeholder map.” A whole day for social media content…
Every other “deliverable” is a meeting about having a meeting: “agreed officials-level exchange,” “scoping note for a joint abatement initiative,” “invitation to a UK-hosted technical workshop.“ Could have been a Zoom call…
Tuesday 24th included a tour of Quilapilún Park as well as a copper mine – which makes two days of walking around. No post-visit report has been produced nearly two months after the trip. It wouldn’t be long would it…
UPDATE: DESNZ released a statement in response.
Read the full details below:
Ed Miliband and Rachel Reeves’ vaunted decision to “delink” gas and electricity prices is likely to raise prices. All for one marketing stunt…
Policy changes announced today ostensibly aim to reduce the frequency at which electricity is sold at gas-linked wholesale prices. The government is doing two things to achieve this:
There are some other piecemeal measures. As the CPS’ Robert Colvile points out, making the CfD switch voluntary will likely raise prices. Voluntary contracts will only get accepted when the fixed price beats the generator’s expected wholesale earnings so the government is likely overpaying relative to where the market would have landed anyway. Generators bullish on high gas prices stay on wholesale and those expecting prices to fall lock in a guaranteed income above future market rates at consumer expense…
That means “breaking the link” is achieved by raising the cost of non-gas electricity to consumers. A DESNZ source tells Guido bills won’t go down: “The only caveat is that raising the levy on generators might give them no choice – but you won’t see bills go down.” The source added: “It’s just a marketing exercise to justify clean power.” More hot air…
Miliband on Sky News this morning:
“As you know, I steered well clear of Mandelson when I became Labour leader in 2010… I had a conversation with David Lammy about it before the appointment, and I said I was worried about it… I think [Lammy] was worried about it too.”
A perfect time to remind everyone he thinks he has better judgement than the (current) Prime Minister. Useful if there’s a vacancy…
The Tony Blair Institute has staged yet another rare intervention against Miliband’s Net Zero fantasy, with a new report accusing him of being too “ideological” and urging the government to approve the drilling of the Jackdaw gas field and the Rosebank oilfield. This is the fourth time in a year that Blair has criticised Labour over Net Zero…
The report, endorsed by Blair himself, says:
“…the UK debate remains too ideological, with the government focused on decarbonising power supply only and the opposition on expanding domestic oil and gas.
“Neither confronts the central challenge: only around a fifth of UK energy demand is currently met through electricity, leaving the wider economy heavily dependent on fossil fuels”
Miliband’s friendly profile in the New Statesman last month revealed he keeps in regular contact with Gordon Brown… but not so much Blair. Old habits…
Gargantuan Silicon Valley tech firm OpenAI has paused a major UK infrastructure project. Blaming energy costs and regulations…
Stargate is being paused:
“We see huge potential for the UK‘s AI future… AI compute is foundational to that goal — we continue to explore Stargate UK and will move forward when the right conditions such as regulation and the cost of energy enable long-term infrastructure investment.”
The project was announced in September when Trump visited the UK. Disaster for Miliband and Labour…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”